With the increasing popularity of computing and the use of the Internet, in many fields, traditional analog technology is being replaced by digital technology. One example of this transformation is in the field of photography. As is well known in the art, traditional photography involves conventional film and chemical processing, whereas digital photography involves the creation of digital photograph files and the manipulation of the digital photograph through digital processing. Generally, digital photography is advantageous over traditional photography since the repetitive costs of film and chemical processing are eliminated. Furthermore, digital photograph files provide a more permanent storage format previously unavailable to photographers.
Disadvantages in the early development stages of digital photography included color and resolution control although with the advent of 2 megapixel and above digital cameras, these initial problems are being overcome. Additionally, digital photograph files are generally large and occupy a significant portion of disk space requiring digital photographers to be equipped with relatively high-powered personal computers.
Several digital photography web sites currently enable computer users to upload and store digital photograph files in user accounts on the Internet using the World Wide Web (web). Digital photograph files may be created by scanning conventional film photographs or may be created directly through the use of a digital camera and uploading the digital photograph files either directly through a PCMCIA card or through the use of hardware such as flash memory cards, USB ports, and application software.
These digital photography web sites, however, are limited in scope to general digital photography information, commercial film processing services that also create and provide digital photograph files, commercial digital photograph processing, and free file storage space for digital photograph files and digital photography albums.